Lee Sung Jin’s Beef is finally back for season 2 on Netflix. But if you were hoping to hear about the further twisted adventures of Danny Cho (Steven Yeun) and Amy Lau (Ali Wong) you’re out of luck. Beef season 2 stars Oscar Isaac, Charles Melton, Carey Mulligan, and Cailee Spaeny in an entire new rage-fueled ordeal.
Is the New Season of Beef Connected to Season 2, Like, at All?
Both seasons are about escalating disputes (a.k.a. beef) between two parties from different social classes, take place in California, mix personal matters with business ventures, and center Korean American narratives–primarily with Yeun’s character Danny in season 1 and Melton and Spaeny’s character Austin in season 2.
But that’s about it. They’re only linked thematically. None of the characters seem to know or be related to each other. It doesn’t really seem like the characters from the first season are likely to pop up at the country club in the second season. This is an anthology series, and not even one like The White Lotus where some characters do weave throughout each season’s narrative.
“The intention was always to have it be an anthology,” Lee told Netflix’s Tudum. “My early pitch to networks included slides with rough examples of potential ‘beefs’ for upcoming seasons. However, because the show was in its first season and its future was uncertain, we intentionally wrote season 1 as a limited series, ending that story with a period — Ali Wong and Steven Yeun’s characters in the hospital bed.”
One Structural Link Between the Seasons Is the Episode Titles
Each episode of Beef season 1 and season 2 came from a famous quotation. The artists and thinkers quoted in season 1 include: Werner Herzog, Joseph Campbell, Sylvia Plath, Betty Friedan, Ingmar Bergman, Franz Kafka and Simone de Beauvoir.
The second season takes its episode titles from famous individuals including Marcel Proust, Dinah Maria Mulock Craik, Sylvia Plath again, A. E. Housman, Kahlil Gibran, and Marion Woodman.
The Biggest Link Between Beef Season 1 and 2 Happened Off Camera
Lee also told Tudum that the fights that incite both seasons were inspired by incidents he witnessed/experienced in his own life. He really is the thread that ties the two seasons together in more ways than one.
Also, the cast of season 1 met up with the cast of season 2 to bless them and break the ice before they even got started filming. Lee and the six leads of both seasons “did an escape room together,” he said. “That was Carey’s idea, and then we went straight to dinner. It was a nice way to start the season with a passing of the torch.” It’s the spirit of Beef and getting to live in Lee’s darkly comic mind that connects them more than anything else.
